Baroque Keyboard Music

                                        Baroque Instrumental Genres & Formats 
 
                               Article:  North German and South German organ schools 


      Giovanni Gabrieli  (c. 1555 - 1612) an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the 
      most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the 
      Venetian Schoolat the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms.


                          Canzona Septimi Toni  -  Diane Bish & The Dallas Brass  (3:12)  


      Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck  (1562 – 1621) was a Dutch composer, organist, and pedagogue 
      whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras.  He was 
      among the first major keyboard composers of Europe, and his work as a teacher helped 
      establish the north German organ tradition.

      Sweelinck represents the highest development of the Dutch keyboard school, and indeed 
      represented a pinnacle in keyboard contrapuntal complexity and refinement before J.S. Bach. 
      He also composed than 250 vocal works (chansonsmadrigalsmotets and Psalms).


                                                        Fantasia Chromatica  (8:12)


      John Bull  (1562 or 1563 – 1628)  was an English composer, organist, virginalist and organ 
      builder.  He was a renowned keyboard performer of the virginalist school and most of his 
      compositions were written for this medium.


      Girolamo Frescobaldi  (1583 – 1643) was a musician from the Duchy of Ferrara, in what is 
      now northern Italy.  He was one of the most important and influential composers of organ 
      and harpsichord music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. 

      His work influenced Johann Jakob FrobergerJohann Sebastian BachHenry Purcell, and 
      countless other major composers.  Pieces from his celebrated collection of liturgical organ 
      music, Fiori musicali ("Musical Flowers")  (1635), were used as models of strict counterpoint 
      as late as the 19th century.

                 Toccata Terzo, libro primo  (3:35)   Canzoni, Fiore Musicali  (2:30)


      Samuel Scheidt  (1587 – 1654) was a German composer and organist.  He had studied with 
      Sweelinck in Amsterdam, and started the North German organ tradition during the Thirty 
      Years War which had cut North German (but not South Germany) off from Rome.   

      Heinrich Sheidemann  (1595 - 1663)  was a renowned German composer who wrote organ
      music almost exclusively.  He left more music than any of his contemporaries.  A student of 
      Sweelinck, he spent his last 33 years in Hamburg.  He was a big influence on Diederich 
      Buxtehude.  

      Johann Jakob Froberger  (1616 – 1667) was a German Baroque composer, keyboard virtuoso, 
      and organist.  Among the most famous composers of the era, he was influential in developing 
      the musical form of the suite of dances in his keyboard works.   

      Froberger is usually credited as the creator of the Baroque suite.  The typical Froberger suite 
      established allemandecourantesarabande and gigue as the obligatory parts of a suite.

      He is often considered the founder of the south German organ school.  

                             Suite in D (Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue)   (7:30)


      Jean-Henri d'Anglebert (baptized 1 April 1629 – 23 April 1691) was a French composer, 
       harpsichordist and organist.  He was one of the foremost keyboard composers of his day.


      What is a fugue? 


      Diederich Buxtehude  (1637 - 1707) was a German composer (but maybe born in Denmark) 
      primarily of organ music and church vocal music.  He is the culmination of the North German 
      organ school before J.S. Bach  (In 1705, Bach, 20, walked 250 miles from his home to meet 
      Buxtehude, 68, in Lubeck).  

      Johann Pachelbel  (1653 - 1707)  was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought 
      the south German organ school to their peak.  Enormously popular during his time, he composed 
      a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale 
      prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle 
      Baroque era.  His Canon in D ("Pachelbel's Canon") is often played at weddings.   


                                   Chaconne in F minor  (9:00)




Late Baroque Keyboard Composers:


     Francois Couperin  (1668 - 1733) Mostly known for his keyboard works, Couperin also wrote 
     sacred music, secular madrigals, and chamber music.

 
     Jean-Philippe Rameau  (1683 - 1764) was one of the greatest French composer and theorists 
     of the 18th century.  He was the court composer for Louie XV.  Rameau wrote a large number 
     of vocal works before turning to opera in his late forties, on which his fame lasts.  He is also 
     highly regarded for his harpsichord compositions.  


     Domenico Scarlatti  (1685 - 1757)  Less famous in his day than his father, Alessandro, he 
     composed a variety of works, but is most known for the 555 short keyboard sonatas he wrote 
     in the last 25 years of his life.  They are in the Galant style that led to the Classical era of 
     Haydn and Mozart.


     Carlos Seixas  (1704 - 1742)  was a Portuguese composer whose styles traversed the High 
     Baroque and transitional period to the Classical era.  He was knighted for his work as organist 
     at the Royal Chapel in Lisbon. 


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